The State of the Creative Brief.
Rather than make predictions for 2023, I choose to draw some conclusions about the status of the creative brief in our industry. I was a practicing copywriter and creative director in legacy ad agencies for 26 years. I started writing about and teaching creative briefs in 2004, so I’m about to enter my 19th year […]
E98: Final Creative Review for 2022
Airs December 28, 2022 Henry and I review two new spots for our final Creative Review of 2022. The first spot is for the latest Covid booster by Pfizer Biontech by Fierce Pharma Marketing. Spot number two is by Luck Generals, whose work we’ve reviewed before. This one is a new Christmas spot for Amazon. […]
Remember your audience.
When you do as much creative-brief training for brands big and small as I have in the past 17 years, you see trends. I could provide a hefty list of the trends I’ve observed, but today I’ll focus on one. Audience. Not the audience for the product, but the audience for the creative brief. The […]
E97: A conversation with Matt Ryan, senior strategist at Popcorn
Airs December 21, 2022 Matt Ryan’s official title is Sr. Director of Communication Plans, which is a fancy way of describing his role as the top strategist for Universal Resort Orlando’s in-house ad agency, Popcorn. Henry and I had a chance to talk in depth with Matt about the laudable process Popcorn developed to foster […]
Are you trustworthy? It’s a must for a creative brief writer.
(Originally published February 9, 2015) I used to say that before you can write a single word on a creative brief, you need a strategy. It’s time to amend that. There’s an important precept that straddles the two: trust. Strategy must be in place before the brief can be written. But before you can begin […]
E96: Another conversation with Cameron Day, author of Spittin’ Chiclets.
Airs December 14, 2022 He’s back! Our friend Cameron Day, author of The Advertising Survival Guide—Stage One: Launch and Ascent: Chew With Your Mind Open, and our guest about 10 months ago, returns for another wide-ranging and fun conversation. This time, Henry Gomez and I welcome Cam back to talk about his new book, The […]
E95: A conversation with Leticia Rita, co-founder, HolaBrief.com
Airs December 7, 2022 Henry Gomez and I welcome Leticia Rita, co-founder of an online creative brief platform called HolaBrief.com. It’s a free customizable briefing template designed for small to medium-sized agencies, design firms and start-ups. Leticia, a former creative, comes to us from Spain. She felt a similar pang of frustration as I did […]
E94: Creative Review—Northern Tool + Equipment
Airs November 30, 2022 Henry Gomez and I bring you another Creative Review this week. Our aim with these Reviews is to focus on real products. Northern Tool + Equipment fits the bill perfectly. NT+E is one of the nation’s leading retailers of high-quality tools and equipment for professionals and DIYers. Today we discuss and […]
The burger account syndrome.
“We work in the _______ industry and you don’t have a ________ industry creative brief. You don’t know our business.” I hear this only after my creative brief workshop and only when there was resistance to my training. I never hear it when things go well. The truth is that the number of outstanding creative […]
E93: A conversation with Paul MacFarlane.
Airs November 23, 2022 Henry Gomez and I welcome one of our more devoted viewers and fans, Paul MacFarlane. He’s also a fellow traveler committed to writing and advocating for great creative briefs. His work as a creative director and brand strategist for his own company, The 1101 Experiment, demonstrates how he puts walks the […]
